Numb3rs

It’s very strange to see a television show get its own symposium on a big science conference like the AAAS. But in this case it’s more than justified. One of the most difficult fields in science to popularise is mathematics, but the CBS eggheads have done just that. The show Numb3rs, in which an FBI agent solves crimes with the help of his mathematics professor brother, has soaring ratings in the USA and other countries. The two creators of Numb3rs, the Caltech mathematics advisor to the show and the actor who plays the mathematics professor enlightened a large audience for two hours with clips and anecdotes of the first show to ever engage over 20 million viewers every week with math.